Referencing and Citations in Research Papers

An important aspect of writing a Research Paper is the references and citations to be given in support of one’s theme of the Paper. These elements are very critical in bestowing credibility to the Paper. The citations used in the introduction or Review of Literature, shows how seriously you have approached the subject matter, the extent of reading you have done to understand the issues involved, and what areas deserve a new study.

How are we to provide the citations? There used to be a lot of confusion and unnecessary disputes on this issue. In general it is an agreed practice now that the writer will indicate or at an appropriate page, the reference convention adopted in the work. The most common practice followed is to mention the AUTHOR (by Surname), Title of the work, Name of Publisher and edition, .if there are more than one, and the year of publication. If the work cited is a collection of articles by different authors, mention the Editor(s), or the first two authors and say it all. Some real complications arise in citing information downloaded from the internet. Here, mention not only the source Web site, but also the date when down- loaded. This is because many web sites may wind up, re-name or even disappear after some time. The rest of the details, as for printed matter, will need to be given. When we cite an article that appeared in a particular issue of a regularly published Journal, the Name of the Journal, its Book Volume Number, Issue number and pages in which the quoted text appears, should follow the name of the author(s).

Even though a full fledged Annexure of references made is given with the article, it is a normal courtesy to give a footnote on the relevant page itself to avoid inconvenience to the reader.